Ishana Night Shyamalan is following closely in her father's footsteps, and it could be a matter of time before she overtakes him as a premiere horror director. Shyamalan always manages to insert himself in his films, occasionally in critical roles. It seems that he's at his happiest being on set, and he appears to have transferred that love to his daughters.

His oldest daughter Saleka recently starred in Trap, which was an opportunity for the singer-actor to showcase her vocal range as well as her acting talents. Ishana Night Shyamalan, M. Night's middle daughter, has followed her father behind the camera. Born and raised in her father's stomping grounds of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ishana attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts and began her directing career working on music videos for Saleka. Like her father, horror is her genre of choice, which makes comparing the two an interesting exercise.

Ishana Night Shyamalan's Directing Career, Explained

Ishana Has Directed One Feature Length Film

Ishana Night Shyamalan began her directing career in 2020, directing the music videos for her sister Saleka's songs, "Clarity" and "Mr. Incredible". Since then, she's directed two more of her sister's music videos: "Seance" and "Graffiti". Her film work began in 2021 when she worked as the second unit director on her father's movies Old and Knock at the Cabin Door. While she was helping her father with his films, she was also getting first-hand experience in the director's chair while working on her father's Apple TV+ series, Servant.

She wrote 10 episodes of the series and directed six episodes from season 2 through season 4. This pseudo-internship with her father gave her the confidence and know-how to take on the challenging job of directing her own feature film, The Watchers, a 2024 horror fantasy that blends Celtic folklore with modern suspenseful horror tropes. While The Watchers may not have received the acclaim Ishana had hoped for, it put her on the map as a competent director and is an important first step in what's shaping up to be an interesting career.

M. Night's Style Compared To His Daughters

The Shyamalans Share Some Stylistic Similarities

With how often she's worked on sets with her father, it would have been nearly impossible for Ishana not to take some lessons and techniques from her father. Even her music videos have some of the M. Night Shyamalan hallmarks. Ishana often focuses on her sister in closeup, with something like a fish eye lens. The singer also often looks directly into the camera, a move that her father has done multiple times to unnerving effect. Her work in Servant is a little bit harder to distinguish, but the series has been competent and consistently directed the entire way through.

M. Night and his wife, Bhavna Vaswani, have a third daughter, Shivani.

Ishana's feature debut is a much more telling look into how her and her father's styles are similar, and there are some clear similarities in everything from the way they film scenes to the dialogue of their characters to the Shyamalan-style twist at the end of The Watchers. For one, it's notable that Ishana is drawn to the same fantasy horror storytelling that her father is interested in. Movies like The Village, Lady in the Water, and to some extent, Signs, combine the mystical and the horrific. There's plenty to fear in these films but also plenty to wonder at.

Both directors also seem to have a knack for directing actors and though the dialogue often feels clunky in Shyamalan movies, the actors all always seem to understand the tone Ishana and M. Night are shooting for. Shyamalan and his daughter are big fans of steady, focused shots where someone or something comes into the frame either to scare or surprise, and they're never afraid to hold the shot until the viewer recognizes that something is very wrong in the frame. It's a neat trick and one that Ishana quickly picked up.

Ishana also seems to have learned her father's skills of creating suspense and tension. Some of the very best moments in M. Night Shyamalan's movies are the most suspenseful. The Mexican birthday party in Signs, the closet in The Sixth Sense, the creature staring at Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) in The Village: these are all masterful displays of making the audience hold their breath while they wait for something terrifying. Ishana Night Shyamalan may not do them quite as easily, but there are still some heart-poinding, tense moments in The Watcher.

In fact, the biggest criticism that can be levied against Ishana is that sometimes, The Watchers feel like an imitation of her father.

In fact, the biggest criticism that can be levied against Ishana is that sometimes, The Watchers feel like an imitation of her father. Though that may not be completely fair considering she's worked on his recent projects and things that audiences may consider "M. Night's" could actually be "Ishana's". The best parts of The Watchers are in dialogue with M. Night's movies. Hopefully, her next film will display a bit more chance-taking and individuality.

Will Ishana Night Shyamalan's Career Eclipse M. Night's?

Ishana's Career Is Only Just Beginning

M. Night Shyamalan has earned two Academy Award nominations and one Golden Globe nomination over his career, and his films frequently earn huge box office paydays. He seems immune to the fact that nearly all his films since Signs have been mildly received, at best, save for a few notable examples like Unbreakable and Split. No matter how many times it seems like his movies just fall flat, every Shyamalan announcement brings out adoring fans and gets Hollywood talking.

His ideas have always been so unique and unexpected, that his films are worth going to just to see what he thinks up next. This is a rare air to be in, and Ishana Night Shyamalan has a ways to go if she ever wants to eclipse him in that regard. However, she is more than capable in overtaking him in of consistency and quality. M. Night has had some poorly reviewed films over the years. Ishana could very well show that she has even better technical chops than her father, and it wouldn't be so hard to do so.

The Watchers is a first film and has all the hallmarks of being a young director's debut outing. It's small, a bit silly, filled with plot holes, and a tad too predictable. However, those aren't issues unique to Ishana, and what the movie does show is that she knows her way around a Hollywood set, and she could start proving herself an equal to her father as her career goes on. Ishana Night Shyamalan has plenty of time to chase after her father's legacy and there's no reason she can't sur him if she continues improving.